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 22 November 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation!
Al Franken | Foster America
 Al Franken, Al Franken's Website Franken writes: "People ask me all the time if I miss the Senate. I miss getting things done that make a difference in people's lives." READ MORE  Mar-a-Lago is set to host a private event for the Center for Security Policy, a nonprofit based in Washington that has espoused anti-Muslim views. (photo: Saul Martinez/The New York Times)
Far-Right Group Pushing "Islamist Infiltration" Conspiracy Theory Will Hold Banquet at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club
David A. Fahrenthold, The Washington Post Fahrenthold writes: "A far-right group that believes Islamists are infiltrating the U.S. government will hold a banquet Saturday night at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club, according to a permit issued for the event."
EXCERPT:
Earlier this year, ACT for America, a group that has labeled Islam a “cancer” and warned of plots by Muslims, Democrats and the media, also booked a banquet at Mar-a-Lago. But after the Miami Herald reported on the event, the club canceled it. The Trump Organization has not explained why.
Trump is not expected to attend the Center for Security Policy’s banquet on Saturday.
Instead, he is expected to arrive at Mar-a-Lago around Thanksgiving for his first visit of the winter social season in Palm Beach.
There are no signs that Trump’s club is in financial trouble. This year, for instance, it filed its annual applications to hire 80 foreign workers as temporary housekeepers, waiters and cooks — slightly more than last year.
Still, Mar-a-Lago was hurt by the abrupt departures in 2017 of 22 charities that rented its space. The club’s revenue fell by 10 percent last year, according to federal financial disclosures.
This year, Trump’s club has added more events for its existing members, who already paid up to $200,000 to join. For instance, the club has added a “Gods & Goddesses Toga Party” by the pool in January, according to a members-only magazine obtained by The Post. Tickets are $135 per guest.
Trump has also benefited from a smattering of start-up events, organized by Trump supporters who have rushed to replenish his lost business. The largest is a group called Trumpettes USA, which is planning its third annual gathering at the club in February, with 700 guests.
The group says it has sold tickets totaling more than $1 million. As usual, that money isn’t intended for charity. It will be spent on the party.
“We’re not fundraisers. We never have been. That’s not what we do,” said Toni Holt Kramer, one of the leaders of the Trumpettes. She declined to say how much of that money would go to Trump’s club as opposed to other vendors.
 Trump White House staffer Stephen Miller. (photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
More Than 100 Democrats Sign Letter Calling for Stephen Miller to Resign
Brett Samuels, The Hill Samuels writes: "More than 100 Democratic lawmakers on Thursday signed on to a letter calling for President Trump to fire senior adviser Stephen Miller as a civil rights group details hundreds of controversial emails he sent prior to his time in the administration."
EXCERPT:
Democrats and civil rights groups have hammered Miller over the past week as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) publishes summaries of emails the White House aide sent in 2015 and 2016 prior to working in the White House.
The emails, roughly two dozen of which have been reviewed by The Hill, contain links and references to publications associated with white nationalism and show how Miller coordinated with Breitbart News to shape coverage around immigration and the 2016 GOP primary.
One exchange from August 2015 shows Miller expressing concern to a then-editor at Breitbart that Mexicans affected by Hurricane Patricia could be granted temporary protected status (TPS).
“That needs to be the weekend’s BIG story. TPS is everything,” Miller wrote to McHugh.
Miller shared with the former editor links to InfoWars, a far-right site that promotes conspiracy theories, and VDare, which publishes white nationalist ideology, according to the emails.
In one exchange from September 2015, Miller references “Camp of Saints,” a dystopian French novel that depicts the decay of Western civilization at the hands of immigrants.
The White House has offered support for Miller as the SPLC has released additional emails. It has dismissed the organization as "discredited," pointing to a defamation lawsuit it settled in 2018.
White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley offered a personal defense of Miller in a statement last week.
“I work with Stephen. I know Stephen. He loves this country and hates bigotry in all forms – and it deeply concerns me as to why so many on the left consistently attack Jewish members of this Administration,” Gidley said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Thursday's letter.
Miller previously worked as an aide to former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) before joining the Trump campaign. In the time since, he has solidified himself as one of the president's longest-tenured and most trusted advisers, crafting policy on immigration and writing speeches.
 Activists demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court in 2018. (photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Under Trump, LGBTQ Progress Is Being Reversed in Plain Sight
Kirsten Berg and Moiz Syed, ProPublica Excerpt: "Since taking office, Trump's administration has acted to dismantle federal protections and resources for LGBTQ Americans, particularly those gained under President Barack Obama." READ MORE  Protesters carry a portrait of Philando Castile on June 16, 2017, in St. Paul, Minnesota. (photo: AFP)
Families of African Americans Killed by Police Talk of Trauma
Jacinda Townsend, Al Jazeera Townsend writes: "On the 5th anniversary of Tamir Rice's shooting, victims' families share the trauma that follows police brutality."  he video is short - 30 minutes - the final half-hour of Tamir Rice's life, captured by a surveillance camera on November 22, 2014.
It is grainy, so grainy that it is hard to even make out the toy gun that a 911 caller claimed Tamir was pointing at passersby. The 12-year-old paces on the pavement, then sits in the gazebo.
A police cruiser speeds onto the grass beside the gazebo.
Two seconds later, Officer Timothy Loehmann has fatally shot Tamir.
Not two minutes after that, Tamir's 14-year-old sister, Tajai, can be seen running across the snow to reach her wounded brother. She is tackled to the ground by the police.
It takes eight minutes for paramedics to arrive.
Many of us have seen at least part of the video, and know that afterwards, a grand jury declined to indict either Loehmann or Frank Garmback, the other officer on the scene. Many of us know that Tamir's family filed a wrongful death suit against Loehmann, Garmback, and the City of Cleveland, which was settled to the amount of $6m.
What few of us can possibly know, however, is the extent of the grief and post-traumatic stress Tamir's family have faced in the wake of his death.
Tamir Rice's mother - 'I'm learning how to breathe'
"We are very angry, very sad and very depressed," says his mother, Samaria Rice. "We are still experiencing it to this day."
Three of Samaria's children, Tajai, Tabon and Tasheona, were only teenagers when their younger brother was killed: the oldest among them, Tasheona, was just 18.
Tajai, who was handcuffed and detained by police as her brother lay dying nearby, developed an eating disorder after the shooting.
"PTSD causes negative behaviour, and not getting that addressed, you make bad decisions," says Samaria. "My older daughter was planning to be a paediatrician; now, she has two babies. My son was looking to get into carpentry, because he likes to build things. Now, he has a record. My younger daughter Tajai is also now a mother."
Becoming a grandmother of four children in four years was not in my plan."
Like many mothers of police brutality victims, Samaria Rice has filled her grieving process with activism.
"I never got a chance to grieve Tamir because I had to get active right away, but working with the community, and with other families surviving police brutality, I feel like part of a team. I'm trying to pace myself these days. I'm learning how to breathe."
Marshall Miles's sister - 'The police are supposed to protect us, not kill us'
Maureen Miles, whose brother Marshall died in 2018 in the custody of the Sacramento County Sheriff's office, sets her alarm for six o'clock every morning.
"I never make it," she says. "I'm always up before then."
Her brother died of cardiac arrest after being hogtied, with his wrists and ankles behind his back. On the video released by the sheriff's office, Miles can be heard telling officers he cannot breathe. Seconds after being placed on the floor of a jail cell, he stops breathing altogether.
After being comatose in a hospital for four days, Marshall died.
"At first, it was shocking, just unbelievable. It still is," she says. "I haven't had a good night's sleep since my brother died, and it's been over a year. I toss and turn all night, and wake up with my brother on my mind. My entire family is just stressed, sad and confused - if it's not me, it's my mom, or it's my sister."
Maureen Miles speaks about a special kind of grief faced by the surviving families of police brutality victims.
"I don't get to grieve in private," she says. "I have to hold it together in public, or else people will stereotype me. I'm also afraid to advocate for my brother, because if I speak out, the police might harm me. The police know me - they killed my brother - they know where I live. The police are supposed to protect us, not kill us," she says. "I don't feel safe anymore."
Anka Vujanovic, director of the Trauma and Stress Studies Center at the University of Houston, says that this type of grief response is not unusual among families of police brutality victims.
"Often, people are grappling with how the trauma changed their belief systems - not only their beliefs about themselves, but about the world around them. PTSD affects notions of trust, safety, esteem, intimacy, and power and control. Conceptualising this kind of trauma might cause a survivor to mistrust authority figures and the legal system."
With good reason: Vujanovic points to the very special intersections involved in the particular PTSD encountered by surviving families. "There was the death of the family member, but also the racial trauma, and the trauma that has been inflicted by an entity that should be there to protect everyone. If they weren't already questioning the legal system, they are now. These are complex intersections of trauma that these families are navigating."
Sherita Jackson - 'Who do we call when the police are the ones harassing us?'
Sherita Jackson, whose October 19 arrest went viral after her 12-year-old son filmed it at her request, says police have harassed her since the incident, with one officer driving by and parking his squad car in front of her house. "Who do we call when the police are the ones harassing us?" she asks.
Sherita was arrested when a Family Dollar employee called the police on her for trespassing. She was a former employee of the store and says the call arose out of a work-related dispute. When the sheriff's deputy arrived, she refused to show him identification and he tripped her, pushed her into the dirt, and sat on her while putting on handcuffs. Jackson's five-year-old, Leilani, can be heard on the video, screaming, as her brother Tyreece films the arrest.
"I could see tears running down Tyreece's face," Sherita says. "I teach him to cooperate with the law, but how do I also teach him that he has a right to stand up? I don't know. I'm so lost."
During the arrest, she says, her daughter's school counsellor drove by, and within minutes, the entire school community was standing on the side of the road.
"The teacher grabbed her off the street and put her in her van," Sherita explains, but not before Leilani witnessed the most brutal parts of the arrest. On the video, as the officer cuffs her mother and someone beckons her from somewhere off-camera, Leilani can be heard asking, "Are you going to be OK without us?"
"She's traumatised," Sherita says. "She cries over everything now. Everything in her life is a trigger. Three days after the arrest, she slipped and fell, and screamed for an hour straight. I've never heard her cry like that before. I can't get her out of my bed at night."
Tyreece has been quiet, she says, but she gave him a notebook to write down his feelings and sees him writing in it often.
As she manages her children's PTSD, Sherita must also handle her own.
"I'm dealing with a lot of things because of this situation. I still have marks on my wrist from the handcuffs, and off and on, I have pain in my lower back. I don't want to pop pills, but I have no insurance. Physically, I'm in a lot of pain. Emotionally and mentally, I'm truly wrecked. I lost my balance in my boyfriend's truck, and there was sand on the floor, and it was a trigger for when I was face down in the dirt with the officer sitting on my back. I broke down crying. It was happening all over again."
Sean Bell's mother - 'I get tired of hearing about young men and women of colour being killed'
Valerie Bell, whose son Sean was shot 50 times by undercover New York City police officers on his wedding day in 2006, speaks about the longer-term repercussions of state-actor violence.
"I still remember that day," she says. "I went to the beauty parlour to get my hair done, thinking I was going to my son's wedding. Instead, I began to prepare for his funeral. I lived each day in numbness."
Her son was 23.
"Sean died on November 25 and was buried the following Friday," she says, "but I went back to work after Christmas. I didn't give myself time to grieve. I didn't want to. I cried every day at work, and at that time I worked for Jamaica Hospital, so I went to work knowing that my son had passed through that very morgue."
Valerie says her older son, William, and her daughter Delores were affected as well.
"Delores didn't want to go back to school, so we homeschooled her. Neither of my kids likes to talk about it, but they're still proud of their brother, and proud of the life he lived. He hit a home run out of the stadium at Ozone Park at the age of six, and travelled the world playing baseball."
When Sean was killed, he had just taken the test to join the electrician's union and had a pending job interview.
Three police officers involved in the shooting went to trial but were acquitted by a judge.
Like many surviving family members, Valerie managed her grief in part by becoming politically active.
"I kept working for social justice afterwards, because I get tired of hearing about young men and women of colour being killed for no reason. I worked on this issue until 2014. I was not going to stand by and not be a voice for Sean Elijah Bell."
She recalls a big win she helped secure in 2015, when Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order appointing the New York State attorney general as special prosecutor in cases where law enforcement officers are involved in civilian deaths.
"If I'd stayed home, I wouldn't have made it," Valerie says. "We just continue. We don't stop. People need to vote, and they need to know who their people are - their senators, councilmen, assemblymen. Ancestors led the way for us. We have to keep going."
Like many survivors, Valerie has not been to therapy, although she has written a book, Just 23, that details the spiritual journey she travelled after her son's death.
"I live according to the word of God," she says. "I learned through my preacher and my bishop. My bishop said Sean was a sacrificial lamb. When I meet other families, I tell them God has a purpose and a plan for our lives. We step alone on faith, and know who our children are - I didn't say were - so we can speak for them."
Like Valerie Bell, Maureen Miles speaks of the way community has helped her through: "There's a community of surviving families who know what we're going through. And the community at large is outraged. We notice, and we really appreciate the way the community has come together for us. Tanya Faison of Black Lives Matter Sacramento has been a big help."
Philando Castile's colleague - 'He was someone the community loved'
When Philando Castile, a school nutrition services supervisor at JJ Hill Montessori, was shot in his car by a Minneapolis police officer in 2016, the world took note. Philando's death had been live-streamed on Facebook by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds. Philando had been reaching for his wallet when he was shot.
On the video, which continues in the squad car in which Diamond is taken into custody, her four-year-old daughter can be heard comforting her. "It's OK, mommy," she says. She repeats. "It's OK."
The four-year-old has just witnessed the shooting and death of the man who was a father figure to her.
Philando's killing, at the hands of Officer Jeronimo Yanez, ignited outrage and protest across the city and left a hole in the community at JJ Hill.
"He was known for his kindness," says Jackie Turner, the chief operations officer of St Paul Public Schools. "He was someone who the community loved and respected for his humility, his meekness and his kindness, and especially for the way he treated children."
Because Philando was killed in the summer, the school had a chance to decide how to welcome students and staff back.
"We moved immediately towards offering support the first few days of school, working with the community to talk about what we could do to ensure that the great things about Mr Castile's life lived on. One thing we did was design a Good Space Mural."
The Good Space Mural, she explains, is "community art." As a travelling mural, it is now used in marches and other community projects. The school also planted a peace garden on school property, and the teacher's union donated a bench. The St Paul Federation of Educators planted a tree in honour of Philando's legacy.
"Because JJ Hill is located in an artistic district, the school chose to have an artist in residence, who can work with students and community to continue to heal through art. At the end of the day, Castile's family is first, even though he was also part of the community. We honour their wishes at all times. His concerns touched so many lives, but his family is so beautiful, and we always work with them to celebrate his life," says Jackie.
When we think of police brutality victims, we often think of those victims relationally - as other people's husbands, daughters, fathers or sisters.
But we would do well to think, too, of the victims' families; those left behind to face an intense and public grief, watching their loved ones die over and over again on courtroom video, observed in their trauma not only by the public but by the state itself.
For police brutality does not only victimise its victims, it ripples out to families, to communities and, eventually, as with any injustice, it ripples out to all of us.
 Thousands of people take part in a protest during the National Strike, in the Bolivar Square of Bogota on Thursday. (photo: Diego Bauman/EPA)
Clashes in Colombia as Hundreds of Thousands Protest Against Government
Joe Parkin Daniels, Guardian UK Daniels writes: "Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have taken to the streets in a show of support for the country's embattled peace process with leftist rebels - and to protest against its deeply unpopular government." READ MORE  Floodwater that swept down Pigeon Creek hit Eddie Fields' home in Pie, West Virginia, and many of his neighbors' homes in May 2009. (photo: Logan Banner/The Allegheny Front)
Appalachia's Strip-Mined Mountains Face a Growing Climate Risk: Flooding
James Bruggers, InsideClimate News Bruggers writes: "Pigeon Creek flows through a narrow mountain hollow along a string of coal mining communities, its water trickling under the reds and yellows of the changing fall foliage." READ MORE Update My Monthly Donation |
